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Monday, September 22, 2014

Inequality reduction, ongoing since the mid-1990s, has halted in the past three years. The best known thermometer for wealth concentration, the Gini index, registered a slight worsening, from 0.496 in 2012 to 0.498 in 2013. Since 2011, experts say, the indicator virtually does not go anywhere.

It is early to say that inequality is increasing again in Brazil. But, for experts, it shows a exhaustion of the mechanisms that have produced positive results in recent years. The labor market improvement, especially for people with less education, the increase in work formalization and the continuous increase in access to education are factors that help explain the better distribution of income in the country in the last two decades. Cash transfer programs, such as Bolsa Familia, also contributed, by helping raise the income of the most needed.